Get-richer investors boldly go where no miner has gone before

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Asteroids could provide minerals and the hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel - turning them into obiting filling stations

Jacqui Goddard

Published at 12:01AM, April 21 2012

Grey, lumpy and hurtling at 17,500mph, they may not seem the most attractive of investment opportunities. Yet asteroids could be turned from cosmic clutter to $20 trillion cash cows under a plan being devised by some of the world’s foremost space visionaries and technology tycoons.

In a move that has tantalised the space exploration community, Planetary Resources, a start-up company backed by investors including James Cameron, the film director and explorer, is set to unveil a revolutionary venture that it says will expand Earth’s natural resource base and “help ensure humanity’s prosperity”.